It is often desirable to provide a powered rear side vent or rear quarter window for ventilation purposes in vehicles, particularly vans and mini-vans. These rear side vent or quarter windows are generally swingably mounted and open outwardly of the vehicle body, and are typically remotely activated, as for example from the driver's seat.
Several types of vehicle power vent window actuators are known and used. Problems associated with these known types of window openers include their high cost, large and cumbersome size, and indirect drive arrangement employing cables with the motor being distant from the window. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,524 discloses a vehicle power window actuator for pivoting a glass view panel about an axis by means of a back-and-forth linear movement of a wire cable. The wire cable has a jack screw portion swaged to one end engaging a gear which is rotated by an electric motor (which normally is placed in a location removed from the window such as in the trunk) to produce linear movement of the cable. The other end of the wire cable is swaged-attached to a rigid curved rod terminating in a ball-shaped end portion. The curved end is housed in an arcuate hollow support assembly which is attached to the vehicle body adjacent the movable edge portion of the window panel so as to direct the end portion of the curved rod against the panel. A connector assembly between the end portion of the curved rod and the window accommodates linear movement of the ball-shaped portion in a direction parallel with the plane of the glass as the window pivots outward. In addition, the end portion moves with and rotates with respect to the glass.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,865 discloses a power window opener for operation of a quarter window of an automobile comprising an actuating device, an electric motor, and pull cable transmitting power from the motor (which is physically removed from the actuating device) to the actuating device. The actuating device has a pulley, a rotary shaft connected to the pulley, and a link mechanism for converting a rotational torque of the rotary shaft into an opening-and-closing force for a wing member of the window. The pull cables are connected with the pulley so that reciprocal pull operation through the motor causes reciprocal rotation of the pulley.
There is thus a need for a relatively simple, direct drive, inexpensive, and compact actuator for swingably mounted rear quarter power windows of vehicles such as, for example, vans and mini-vans. The present invention provides such an actuator.